Such a multiprocessor system is frequently used in motor vehicles to perform various regulation and control tasks with a controller in the form of a multiprocessor system. The multiprocessor system has prescribed application data, which are accessed during operation, and operating data, which are processed internally in the system and change according to the operating state of the installation being controlled, for example the vehicle.
The design of such a multiprocessor system requires that the data record with application data be chosen in a suitable manner. This is referred to as “application”. In this case, the application data, which are later constant, are altered in the multiprocessor system's memory and the reactions are observed in order to be able to perform optimization. An example of an application data item for a multiprocessor system controlling an internal combustion engine is the ignition angle which needs to be chosen for a particular load point.
During application, multiprocessor systems now have the drawback that user needs to manage the individual processors. This assumes knowledge about the internal splitting of the algorithms and data in the multiprocessor system.
EP 0 562 333 A2 discloses a communication network in which a central control node and distributed control nodes communicate with one another. The network has a serial bus and addresses the distributed control nodes cyclically after a predetermined number of clock pulses. To stipulate the order, each control node is assigned an ordinal number.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to be able to consider a multiprocessor system as a unit when prescribing application data during application, and not to have to manage the individual processors in the system separately.